Loss doesn’t erase West girls’ remarkable transformation

The basketball season ended for the West girls on Friday, March 10, with a 50-48 semifinal loss to Derby in the Class 6A state tournament.

For so many years, West’s season never really started.

The Pioneers won 15 games this season after winning nine in the previous 13 and one in the previous three.

West has had 10 winless seasons in its history compared to only seven winning seasons. Coaches such as Don Stucky (8-53), Kem Faught (38-130), Michael Haynes (3-81), Sandy Nixon (3-102) and Ronda Moore (3-81) ran into a brick wall when they tried to change West’s losing ways.

First-year coach Brian Johnson, though, knocked the wall down. Yes, he was helped by a strong group of transfers, including his daughter, Brianna, who helped West reach only its second state tournament and first in 36 years.

It’s not as if Johnson took a team of misfits and made them miracles. But regardless of the circumstances, give Johnson credit for instilling a new, fresh, winning attitude.

Johnson, a 1998 graduate of West, played basketball there for Kevin Hartley and was on Weston Schartz’s football team. When he got a chance to come back, after coaching middle school basketball at Collegiate, he had to weigh what was going on in his head against the tumult inside his heart.

“I had to take a while to think,” Johnson said. “And to ask a lot of questions.”

He consulted Schartz, who had great success at West before leaving to coach at Northwest for 10 years and finally returning to West a few years ago. Schartz has always thought there was something special about West and he and others convinced Johnson of the same.

“I went to school there,” Johnson said. “I didn’t feel like anybody else was probably going to put in the time to change the program around like I would. I spent a lot of time watching film and getting these girls ready. I wanted it just as bad for them as when I was a student and played there.”

Johnson was an undersized but tough player and his girls team emulates that. The Pioneers didn’t have an answer for 6-foot-6 Derby sophomore Kennedy Brown and her 19 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocks.

Still, West was in it until the end. And Brianna Johnson’s long three-point shot at the final buzzer could have been historic if the Pioneers had been just a couple of points closer when it was made.

Brian Johnson, an assistant for three years at Maize before his one year at Collegiate, is intent on getting back to the state tournament many more times. He’s already made it clear that the City League no longer belongs just to South, which lost to West on Thursday night in the 6A quarterfinals.

“I was happy for the girls after that one,” Johnson said. “But I knew all along that if we came out and played that we could beat South. That was a good building block for us. And I’m happy for the girls here who went through all of those losing seasons.”

One of them, senior Samaj Muldrow, couldn’t have dreamed of a state championship last year when the Pioneers were 1-20, a lone win over Southeast. But even that was an improvement on the previous two seasons, when West was 0-21.

Muldrow, who had nine rebounds to go along with two points against Derby, said the season was a dream come true.

Brianna Johnson missed all of her sophomore season with a knee injury and has had two serious knee injuries during her high school career. She was finally able to play a full season without pain and will head to Pittsburg State to play basketball in the fall.

“Really, I don’t congratulate her like I should,” Brian Johnson said. “I don’t want anybody thinking that I’m showing my daughter a lot of favoritism. So when I do tell her she’s playing well, it’s usually not out in front of everybody. But it has been a good feeling seeing her get to play because it really broke her heart when she couldn’t.”

Johnson said he’s always asked about the transfers who have helped West improve. He understands, but says all are living in West’s district. He brought his two daughters – Brendaija is a sophomore guard – and junior Dy’Mond McElrath is the daughter of assistant coach Dana McElrath.

Muldrow spent two seasons at South before transferring to West before last season.

“Truthfully, I’m so proud for her and of her,” Johnson said. “She works so hard and she’s the most athletic player we have. And now to finally go out and have a winning season and have a chance to play in the state tournament.”

Johnson said his Collegiate team won a middle school championship last season. He would have been content to stay there and continue to help build that program.

But West has a pull.

“It’s my alma mater,” Johnson said. “It’s amazing all the calls I’m getting from old West High players. Mr. (Joel) Hudson, our principal, said he heard from someone who had no ties to West but said she liked the way we carried ourselves.”

That means something to Johnson. And the Pioneers do carry themselves well. After the disappointing loss to Derby, West’s players shook the hands of the Panthers and trotted into the locker room together.

“At first,” Johnson said, “we didn’t have any support.”

Winning changes that.

This story was originally published March 10, 2017 at 9:16 PM with the headline "Loss doesn’t erase West girls’ remarkable transformation."